editor's review

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Opera is a free software product designed from the ground up as a replacement for the default web browser of your GNU/Linux operating system, packed with a highly customizable layout, as well as a bunch of unique features and technologies that are not available on any other similar product.

Features at a glance

Key features include a built-in pop-up blocker, integrated search, tabbed browsing, mouse gestures, advanced security, customizable speed dial, support for add-ons, as well as support for a skins.

Additionally, it features a turbo mode that will load web pages faster on slow Internet connections, it features support for bookmarks that can be imported from any other popular web browser, and include a threat analyzer tool that will warn you in case you visit a malicious website.

Furthermore, the program comes with a comprehensive settings dialog that allows the user to configure and tweak the default functionality of the web browser to suit his or her needs, as well as to add add-ons for extra functionality.

Under the hood and supported platforms

While the application is written entirely in the C++ programming language and it uses the Blink layout engine, providing users with an attractive graphical user interface (GUI) across all supported operating systems, including Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Android and BlackBerry.

On GNU/Linux, the application is available for download as binary packages only, as it is not an open source software. It supports both 32-bit and 64-bit hardware platforms and a wide range of Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, Debian, Arch Linux, Fedora, openSUSE, CentOS, Sabayon, Linux Mint, MEPIS, Gentoo and Slackware.

Bottom line

Summing up, Opera for Linux is a decent web browser that hasn’t been updated for almost a year, since summer 2013, and it isn’t compatible with today’s web technologies, which forces us to suggest actively developed web browsers like Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. However, the upcoming version finally brings the newest Opera features to the Linux desktop!